Three Royal Marines accused of executing a wounded prisoner in Afghanistan had been sickened by the Taliban hanging limbs of maimed comrades in trees as trophies, a court martial heard.

Tensions had built up before the killing after insurgents paraded the body parts of close colleagues blown up by improvised explosive devices.

The gruesome detail emerged as one of the commandos admitted he was ashamed of shooting the captured enemy in the chest at point-blank range with a 9mm pistol.

Death scene: The court martial board watch footage of the shooting of a Taliban fighter. The hearing was told that tensions had built up before the killing after insurgents paraded the body parts of maimed Marines

But the experienced sergeant, who can only be identified as Marine A, insisted he believed the gunman was already dead when he pulled the trigger. He blamed lack of self-control and poor judgement for the ‘spur of the moment’ decision sparked by ‘pent-up emotions’.

The three Marines – identified as A, B and C – are accused of murdering the prisoner during a patrol in Helmand on September 15, 2011. Marines B and C allegedly encouraged and assisted Marine A. All three deny the charges.

They are said to have killed the seriously wounded prisoner, whose body has never been found, after an Apache attack helicopter pilot strafed him with cannon fire as he attacked a British base.

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Giving evidence from behind a screen, Marine A, 39, said ‘tensions and stress’ among the men of 42 Commando had increased in the run-up to the incident because of the frantic pace of operations.

In one instance, a respected officer and a second colleague were killed and others badly wounded in a roadside bomb strike. Some of the injured men’s limbs were not recovered and were picked up by the Taliban and hung in trees as a ‘kind of trophy for the world to see’. He said that atrocity had ‘quite a harsh effect’ on the Marines.

On the day of the alleged murder Marine A’s patrol was ordered to check the insurgent targeted in the helicopter attack.

Hearing: Members of the defence legal team sit next to a blue screen erected in the courtroom to hide the identities of three Royal Marine Commandos accused of the murder of an un-named enemy combatant

Footage of the shooting was captured on a camera mounted on the helmet of Marine B, which has been played to the court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire.

It shows the insurgent – who had been armed with an AK47 assault rifle and a grenade – being dragged roughly across a field to the cover of trees. Marine A admitted this was ‘heavy-handed’.The sergeant, who has served in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, is then filmed walking forward, bending down and shooting the detainee in the centre of his chest.

As the Afghan spasms and gasps for breath, Marine A taunted: ‘Shuffle off this mortal coil, you c***. It’s nothing you wouldn’t do to us.’ He then turned to comrades and said: ‘I just broke the Geneva Convention.’

Yesterday Marine A accepted video footage of the incident suggested the man was ‘probably’ still alive when he pulled the trigger.

But he insisted: ‘It was my belief that at the time I discharged my pistol he was dead.’ He claimed to be ‘very surprised’ when the prisoner began convulsing after the shooting.

Poor judgement: Marine A told the court martial, sitting at the Military Court Centre at Bulford, Wiltshire, that he believed the gunman was already dead and blamed a lack of self-control for the shooting

‘He suddenly became very animated after I had discharged my firearm. I questioned if I was right. Had I made a mistake?’

Asked by his barrister, Anthony Berry, why he had shot an apparent corpse, Marine A said: ‘Stupid, lack of control, a momentary lapse of judgment.’

He denied the footage of him telling the insurgent to ‘shuffle off this mortal coil’ was evidence he knew he was alive, insisting the remark was ‘foolish bravado … something I’m not proud of’. He said he had believed he had broken the Geneva Convention because he had mistreated a body.

The court martial heard that back at base he briefly discussed the incident with his comrades, telling them ‘I ****ed up there, lads’. But he did not talk about it again until he was arrested a year later because he was ‘ashamed of my actions’.

He also said he treated a remark by Marine C that he should ‘pop’ the insurgent with a bullet to the head as a ‘throwaway comment … dark humour’ used by troops as a ‘coping mechanism’.

Marine A admitted he told a number of lies in interviews with the Royal Military Police. David Perry, prosecuting, said he had omitted the ‘one key and crucial’ piece of evidence in his first interview with investigators – that he had fired his pistol.